First Street Green Art Park

An "oasis of art." That's how UP Magazine, which covers street art and graffiti, describes First Street Green Art Park on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Also known as First Street Green Cultural Park, this strip of green space is festooned with striking murals, curated by grassroots creative activist Jonathan Neville.

First Street Green is "a non-profit collaboration," masterminded by design and architecture firm TODO DA, "with the goal of converting a seemingly derelict lot of land located at 33 East 1st Street from an inaccessible, garbage-strewn, rat-infested piece of 'vacant' land into an active public space." It prioritizes emerging local arts organizations and artists.

At one time there was a website at firststreetgreenpark.org. The website has expired. That seems almost fitting. This site should be experienced in person.

Much of the park, including all of the paved portion of the irregularly shaped parcel, is at present devoted to the memory of actor and East Village art scene icon Patti Astor and Fun Gallery, the influential showplace she founded in the early 1980s.

Is some of this stuff a bit over the top? Maybe. But then, so was Patti Astor, as I understand it. And after all, as William Butler Yeats once said, "If you don't express yourself you walk after you're dead. The great thing is to go empty to your grave."

All photos © Oren Hope